Manjra sentenced to 25 years to life for deaths of two women

File Photo

Mug shot of Aurangzeb "Simon" Aiyoob Manjra, 52 of Los Angeles, from his May 2010 arrest, at the GPD in Glendale on Tuesday, January 3, 2011. Manjra is charged with killing two women, including Esperanza Torio of Glendale.

Mug shot of Aurangzeb "Simon" Aiyoob Manjra, 52 of Los Angeles, from his May 2010 arrest, at the GPD in Glendale on Tuesday, January 3, 2011. Manjra is charged with killing two women, including Esperanza Torio of Glendale. (File Photo)

Manjra accepted a deal in December to drop a special-circumstance charge in exchange for his guilty plea to the first-degree murder of Torio and the second-degree murder of 44-year-old Los Angeles resident Maria Santos.

The cause of Torio’s death has never been determined because of the condition of her body, said prosecutor Habib Balian with the district attorney’s Major Crimes Unit.

And while Torio’s remains were found, Santos is still missing.

Manjra’s actions forced Santos’ children to “grow up without their mother,” said Balian, who spoke on behalf of her family in the Philippines.

Torio’s family was never able to give her a proper funeral because her remains are still in Mexico, her sister Edna Magpayo said.

Torio, 39, was a single mother who raised two teenage boys and had recently landed a new full-time job.

Magpayo had asked Manjra to look at her as she spoke, but he declined.

She told him that while she and her family may look like they moved on, “there’s a space in our hearts that will never be filled.”

Torio was reported missing on Aug. 16, 1996, after she didn’t return home.

Manjra, who was a salesman, dated Torio and was a suspect in her disappearance. At the time, though, investigators were unable to immediately link him to her disappearance.

But two days after Torio was reported missing, Mexican authorities found her remains in three black trash bags in Rosarito. Nearly a month later, a road worker found her head not far from her other remains.